PhD Students’ Ethnomathematics Proficiency and Willingness to Teach: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis of the Mediating Role of Perceived Usefulness

Ethnomathematics has increasingly been recognised as a culturally responsive approach that enhances students’ engagement and connects mathematical concepts to real-life contexts. However, limited research has examined how advanced learners, particularly PhD students, develop the competence and motivation to teach ethnomathematics. Therefore, this study, embedded in a positivist paradigm, examines the influence of participants’ content and pedagogical knowledge on the usefulness of ethnomathematics on PhD students’ willingness to teach ethnomathematics. Structural equation modelling was used on 102 survey questionnaires to investigate these relationships. The path analysis shows that the usefulness of ethnomathematics is influenced by both content knowledge (β = 0.430) and pedagogical knowledge (β = 0.375). Willingness to teach ethnomathematics was directly predicted by content knowledge (β = 0.456), pedagogical knowledge (β = 0.195) and perceived usefulness (β = 0.271). The mediating role of the usefulness of ethnomathematics in the relationship between ethnomathematics content and ethnomathematics willingness was significant (indirect effect = 0.238, medium effect size). The link between ethnomathematics pedagogical knowledge and willingness to teach ethnomathematics through ethnomathematics usefulness was also significant (indirect effect = 0.109, small effect size). The study concludes that strengthening both content mastery and pedagogical competence, alongside enhancing the perceived usefulness of ethnomathematics, is essential for promoting its integration into mathematics teaching. These findings provide important implications for teacher education, curriculum development, and culturally responsive pedagogy.